Meta Sudans
As Meta Sudans , a type of an antique is fountain called, in which a cone-shaped in a water basin Meta (turning point of a Roman Circus ) stands. From the top of the meta water runs into the basin, so that the meta seems to be sweating, from which the name meta sudans ( sweating cone ) comes.
The best known fountain of this type was the Meta Sudans in Rome near the Colosseum . Coins from the year 80/81 AD show this meta Sudans together with the perfect amphitheater. Excavations from the 1980s confirm this dating. Presumably, the fountain marked a point where four or five city districts met since Augustan times. At the same time, the Via Sacra , which led to the Roman Forum , began here . The foundation of the Meta Sudans was ten meters deep, the Meta 17 meters high, and the water basin was 15.9 meters in diameter. The top of the meta was crowned with a gargoyle , the middle part with niches. The complex was preserved in parts and was removed between 1933 and 1936 in connection with the expansion of Via dell'Impero (today's Via dei Fori Imperiali ) under Mussolini , along with the remains of the base of the Colossus of Nero . In the 1990s, the remains of the Meta Sudans were exposed again.
The younger Seneca reports in a letter about the existence of another meta Sudan in Baiae .
Web links
- The Meta Sudans at Roma Antiqua - Rome online
- Article “Meta Sudans” in: Platner / Ashby: A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome
- Excavation of the Meta Sudans
Remarks
Coordinates: 41 ° 53 '24.3 " N , 12 ° 29' 26.4" E